The PC version of this game was scheduled to be released on November 15th, along with the console versions, but has been delayed two weeks to add more PC features, as noted:

Stuttering/lag framerate optimization – We made all controls much more responsive and less framerate-related. We’ve optimized resource creation, GPU VRAM upload and required VRAM for the game.

No FPS cap

Full SLI/Crossfire support at launch

Extra Details Options – Increases the level of detail for all objects in the game, and adds more details to objects in the distance.

FOV sliders

Ultra Textures pack available at launch

We’re using raw mouse input to reduce latency and use the Windows hardware cursor throughout the game without any additional signal filtering to smooth or accelerate mouse movement by default

Advanced keyboard support – Keyboard hotkeys for every menu and app for faster access. Additionally, all hotkeys can be remapped.

Mouse-centric UI – any UI screen, menus or smartphone app supports full mouse interaction, so the player can finish any UI task with the mouse only. Everything is clickable and has appropriate button states.

Driving has been adapted to suit the keyboard controls, with adjustable steering sensitivity. Same goes for driving camera sensitivity and auto-centering camera behavior.

As with Mafia III, I intend on picking up the PC version on release day and barring another hurricane I'll be posting impressions of the PC version as I play.

"A plan is a list of things that go wrong. I like to keep my lists short. Just be ready." - Rico Rodriguez

I ordered a Samsung 850 EVO SSD from Amazon when it went on sale yesterday, and was pleasantly surprised when I got an email saying I have free Watch Dogs 2 key on Uplay. I just redeemed it, and will report back when it is released.

Well, that was a very rough first hour in a game. WD2 unlocked at about 12:20am EST and I started playing. There was a warning that my video driver was out of date and should be updated. I figured I'd do that later on, but sheesh the game had all sorts of problems, hanging every couple of minutes for several seconds. And when I got to a longer cut scene sequence the audio and video were completely out of sync.

So I alt-Tabbed out of the game, updated my Nvidia driver to the latest and left the GeForce Experience app set my video settings. And when I went back into the game it ran pretty smooth, although I'm getting some video tearing if I rotate the camera pretty quickly.

It's too soon for any gameplay impressions, but I'll be getting to those tomorrow... err, later today.

"A plan is a list of things that go wrong. I like to keep my lists short. Just be ready." - Rico Rodriguez

Just over four hours into the game. By updating to the latest Nvidia driver and using the GeForce Experience to determine my "optimal" video settings, the game runs pretty well at an almost solid 60 fps. However, I'm still experiencing that weird thing that every few minutes the game will just pause for several seconds. Nothing is lost and it resumes right where I left, so I've gotten used to it and I'm treating it like a mandatory game break

Regarding how the game looks while playing... I'm very much not a graphics whore, so it looks fine to me. It does have a bit of off-putting fuzziness to it when driving, but the first Watch_Dogs had that as well. Again, it's something you quickly get used to.

The first hour of the game is getting introduced to your character and the buddies you'll be hanging with for the game. They are pretty much what you would expect from a game about youthful hackers, somewhat annoying but since you don't interact with them very often or for very long, it's fine. By the way, I'm speaking of them as being annoying from the perspective of a 63 year old pretty much follow the rules type guy. Those of you hipper or whatever we are calling the Zeitgeist of the young, more tech savvy people of today, you might find them more appealing.

This game is not like the original Watch Dogs. In that game your character Aidan was pretty much a loner who tolerated working with others to achieve his goals, and hacking was just one of his tools. This game, WD2, is built around hacking and doing things via hacking sometimes just for the sake of showing off. Within the first couple of hours I had achieved the research tech (basically how you get skilled at things) to be able to hack objects like forklifts and then remotely sent a forklift on a bizarre mission through downtown, ramming cars and chasing people . However, that skill is also useful when you try to achieve missions.

Your tools include two robots, a ground drone and a quadcopter, but you have to raise money to get the latter. And needing that money motivates you to wander around the nearby streets which, in turn, flags you to uncover and retrieve money, data hacks which give you research points (which is how you get skills) and find new missions. The game doesn't lead you by the nose after the first couple of missions, you really can just wander around and do what you want, and what appeals to you.

I won't give away any spoilers, but one of the very earliest missions you'll be able to access sends you to a movie studio. Even at this early stage of the game, you really have a number of ways to approach the mission. You can go in hard, you can sneak, or you can use your drones and phone hacks to do some of the leg work for you. Or combine the different tactics. What you will find is that the more skills you learn, the more interesting ways you can approach a mission, and that motivates you to wander around looking for research points.

I'll post more impressions later on, but I'll cautiously say that so far, so good.

"A plan is a list of things that go wrong. I like to keep my lists short. Just be ready." - Rico Rodriguez

IceBear wrote:BTW...my processor is not quite as good as yours (3.3ghz) and I don't have a SSD but I have a 970 video card (rest is the same) but haven't seen and hitches like you are describing

Yes, it's rather odd and while I have had a couple of folks reply on the Steam and Ubisoft forums that they've seen the same thing, it doesn't seem to be a prevalent problem.

Since I made my previous post I played for a couple more hours. When I first restarted the game I was getting that freezing a lot more often than before, so after a while I quit and restarted. And in the next session it hardly happened at all. Weird.

Anyway, I'm enjoying the game. The challenges are really interesting at times. Sadly, I suck at stealth so I've been switching to heavy duty weapons when I get too frustrated. And I'm liking the research tree, I can chose to unlock the skills I feel like I need sooner.

"A plan is a list of things that go wrong. I like to keep my lists short. Just be ready." - Rico Rodriguez

So, taking a break again after nine hours in. The freezing I've been seeing is occurring less and less frequently and I'm now of the opinion that it has something to do with online communications... or maybe not. I've turned off all my online preferences, but I do know that the game does talk to the Uplay servers at times, so maybe that's where it is hanging. Anyway, I'm only seeing it maybe once every fifteen minutes for no more than 3-4 seconds, so that's acceptable.

The game still is fun. I've done a couple more mainline quests, which may consist of several missions by the way. And I'm doing a lot of pick-up missions, like tracking down a hacked phone OS, doing drone and motorcycle races, driving VIPs around, and also keeping my eyes open for research spots, money and other activities which build up followers, which is the main way the game measures progress.

The game has an interesting way of utilizing both your physical sneaking skills as well as your use of your drone tools. I just had a mission where I could use use the drones and a little bit of sneaking to just complete the main part of the mission, or physically sneak into the property to lay hands on a briefcase of money as well. I kept being too sloppy with my sneaking to get inside so after several tries I settled for just the completion of the main objective, but those of you with mad sneaking skills will enjoy the challenge.

I got my game key from GMG and so went directly to Uplay to unlock, install and play, but I see on Steam that the game is getting a "Very Positive" rating so far. Maybe Ubisoft finally figured out what their main audience wanted? Or is it just that the subject matter appeals to folks? Anyway, I'm sure it's paving the way to Watch_Dogs 3.

"A plan is a list of things that go wrong. I like to keep my lists short. Just be ready." - Rico Rodriguez

I only have a couple hours in (I have a job!) but I like what I am seeing. The car handling is atrocious, but I don't have any other major complaints. I accidentally killed someone for the first time last night, I am not sure if that is a bad thing or not. Nobody said anything. Oh, speaking of people saying stuff. Why the fuck do these games have to use so much foul language, it's fucking ridiculous. I have to send my damn kids out of the room or stop playing because these bitches won't stop the fucking swearing.

Yeah, I realize they are just words and these games are trying to be "real" and I was a teenager once and in the Army so it's not hurting my feelings, but my first grader has already been sent to the principal's office once this year for using the F word and the computer is the only place he would be hearing it outside of school. It annoys me that I am more concerned about swearing than having my kids watch me find creative way to murder people in Hitman.

Ironically, the devs changed the handling from what it was in the first game because people complained. I haven't noticed it too much, except that big heavy panel vans do drive like big heavy panel vans and muscle cars do drive very well. And the scissor lift vehicles move very, very slowly . But they do move in this game, which gives me another way to solve a mission.

Yeah, I agree with you on the swearing. It feels gratuitous at times, but then it is like some folks I know in real life who use it to sound more... adult? I think it's more lazy writing myself.

I see from the stats page that you are at 13% after just over two hours. I'm at 20% after 10 hours, but I've now replayed two missions several times because I suck at stealth. It's one of the things I don't like about this game, the moment any guard is alerted they all are and come rushing against you like kids after an ice cream truck. And then the reinforcements show up. I had in my mind back when I started playing that I would be non-lethal in my encounters as much as possible, but that went out the window pretty quickly.

"A plan is a list of things that go wrong. I like to keep my lists short. Just be ready." - Rico Rodriguez

jztemple2 wrote:I see from the stats page that you are at 13% after just over two hours. I'm at 20% after 10 hours

It's probably just measuring story mission progress. I've done two and you've done three out a total of 15 I'd bet. I haven't messed with any side activities because I am still figuring stuff out and the few collectibles I have checked out look to require the drone.

jztemple2 wrote:I see from the stats page that you are at 13% after just over two hours. I'm at 20% after 10 hours

It's probably just measuring story mission progress. I've done two and you've done three out a total of 15 I'd bet. I haven't messed with any side activities because I am still figuring stuff out and the few collectibles I have checked out look to require the drone.

Yup, I wish they had something like the GTA series with a breakdown of all activities. I'd love to know how many more types of cars I need to try to have driven them all.

I'm on Alcatraz right now. Never been there but in-game it's quite detailed.

"A plan is a list of things that go wrong. I like to keep my lists short. Just be ready." - Rico Rodriguez

storz wrote:I ordered a Samsung 850 EVO SSD from Amazon when it went on sale yesterday, and was pleasantly surprised when I got an email saying I have free Watch Dogs 2 key on Uplay. I just redeemed it, and will report back when it is released.

Thanks for posting this. I also just purchased a Samsung 850 EVO SSD but did not get the code fro Amazon. A few emails later and I now own the game. I still need to finish the first one, but it really grew on me, so I'm pretty excited to jump into this next. The promotion runs for quite a bit (12/31/16) so if anyone is looking for an SSD, here is the page with details.

I'm about 13 hours in on the PC. I was having those problems with the game freezing for several seconds every few minutes and sometimes more often. Today I rebooted my computer three times and played around with the services and other overhead and I then finally was about to play without any freezing at all, so I'm thinking it was a CPU problem in spite of my more than recommended i7-4770K processor.

And because I could run smoothly I went online and did hacking and coop and had a good time. I'm really enjoying the game.

"A plan is a list of things that go wrong. I like to keep my lists short. Just be ready." - Rico Rodriguez

storz wrote:I ordered a Samsung 850 EVO SSD from Amazon when it went on sale yesterday, and was pleasantly surprised when I got an email saying I have free Watch Dogs 2 key on Uplay. I just redeemed it, and will report back when it is released.

Thanks for posting this. I also just purchased a Samsung 850 EVO SSD but did not get the code fro Amazon. A few emails later and I now own the game. I still need to finish the first one, but it really grew on me, so I'm pretty excited to jump into this next. The promotion runs for quite a bit (12/31/16) so if anyone is looking for an SSD, here is the page with details.

In addition, if you buy an Nvidia video card from certain retailers (including Newegg but not including Amazon) you can also score a free copy. I got one with my 1080.

I just spent the last three hours having an insane amount of fun with the game. Since last night I felt like I now have pretty much gotten rid of my freezing issue, I decided to try a co-op mission or two. I started a mission with this guy, Louis12375, on Uplay. He has chat but I don't like using a mike or having chat on (too many folks getting annoying with it) and he must have gotten the idea. He was more of a gun and run rather than stealthy, but we got the first mission done and then spent about fifteen minutes being chased by the cops and the gangs, crashing cars and shooting up everything. It was a blast . After we escaped I drove to another mission start and we did it again. And several more times. And in between I participated in a Bounty Hunt mission (I got my man!) and hacked another online player's data, which was really crazy because I was also at a level 5 being chased by the police but had to stay within a few yards of this guy. Louis12475 and I finally ended up on Alcatraz in a big shootout with the cops and found a cell to hide in, then he finally left the co-op mode and I decided to take a break.

I'm up to 18 hours now and 24% complete. I've also completed 11 co-op missions and neutralized three hackers.

"A plan is a list of things that go wrong. I like to keep my lists short. Just be ready." - Rico Rodriguez

So I've now played WD2 for 31 hours and completed 37% of the progress. In more detail, I've completed 4 of the 15 "World Stories", which are the mainline campaign missions, which are composed of several parts. And I've completed one of the six "Light World" stories, which are smaller, optional (I guess) missions. And there are a whole host of other activities to do, races and graffiti and finding paint cans and unlocking special cars and... well, there's lots to do.

Of the other activities, I've completed all the ScoutX photo opportunity collection; some of those were a bit harder because the subject of the photo was off on the town or getting some rest or just not there. Some of these are real characters of San Francisco, including the World Famous Bushman.

I've also been killing it in the online activities, hacking six people successfully and six times foiling other people's hacking. This activity is similar to the one in the first game, but the availability of the quadcopter drone really is a game changer. And I've taken out four people in the Bounty Hunter activity.

I'm really enjoying the game, in spite of my woeful lack of stealth skills. I'm even considering picking up the season pass once I find out more about it.

"A plan is a list of things that go wrong. I like to keep my lists short. Just be ready." - Rico Rodriguez

Finished the story yesterday afternoon. No idea how many hours it took. I only played a few co-op missions with one random partner. It was in no way better than the solo experience since neither of us had/used voice which made it like having an AI partner that was completely unpredictable. I did some go kart races, some dirt bike time trials some drone races and lots and lots of killing. There are no consequences for murder and people wake up from stun guns so... murder it is! It was a fun game with lots of side activities and never felt too grind-ie. I enjoyed the puzzly puzzles. On the other hand it was also totally forgettable... there was one heavy moment in the story but it passed quickly and was largely unmentioned once that quest was done.

coopasonic wrote:Finished the story yesterday afternoon. No idea how many hours it took.

According to the Uplay stats page you played for 27h for 97% completion. Your stats are here I believe. I am 39h in with 45% completion. I'm starting to not win as many hacking attacks as when I started last week, players are getting smarter in the use of the quadcopter to flush me out. Now I'm just going to have to be cleverer. I also accomplished all the Uplay Challenges for the week, which is new for me. Now a new week, a new set of challenges!

"A plan is a list of things that go wrong. I like to keep my lists short. Just be ready." - Rico Rodriguez

I finally got a chance to start playing this over the weekend, and I'm enjoying it quite a lot so far. I'm also having problems with a really stealthy approach and so too often missions descend into a bloodbath. I would this this would reflect badly on Dedsec, but /shrug. One of the coolest tools I've found so far is the tech that lets me use my grenades with the drone. It's gotten me out of a couple of jams already and I've only had it for one mission.

Yes, drone and jumper bomb delivery quickly became a key tactic for me. There are missions that I completed without even entering restricted space personally... or sometimes, not entering until there was nobody left alive guarding it. Note: I also carried a silenced sniper rifle to help the little guys out.

coopasonic wrote:Yes, drone and jumper bomb delivery quickly became a key tactic for me. There are missions that I completed without even entering restricted space personally... or sometimes, not entering until there was nobody left alive guarding it. Note: I also carried a silenced sniper rifle to help the little guys out.

I haven't gotten enough cash to afford better guns yet. I'm still using weapons captured from enemies. Given how expensive they are, I need to come up with better methods to get cash.

A lot of the cash pickups are close to $20k, though some are slower $5k. The silenced sniper was only about $100k. It was basically the only thing I bought. Make sure you sell at the pawn shop from time to time to cash out all those fitness wristbands and tablets you find in glove boxes. I didn't realize that was necessary until later in my game.

Let's see, status update. As of a few minutes ago, which would make it just over eight days since I got the game, I have 48 hours in. I'm 69% complete on the progress of the game. I've completed eight of the fifteen World Stories and four of the six Light World Stories. I've also picked up most of the money bags I've seen and grabbed most of the research points. I've tried all the activities like sailing races and eKart races. I've even done a bunch of the Online stuff too.

I spent a good part of my playing yesterday completing the new set of weekly challenges. Before I had signed in to select the challenges I wanted (you can only have five active of seven possible, or something like that) I had done a successful Hacking Invasion. And then I gave myself a dope slap because one of the challenges was to complete three successful Hacking Invasions. Well, I figured I'd just bang out three more of them. After an hour I hadn't gotten a single success . I had been found and killed, or found and escaped, or the quarry left the session before I was successful in hacking the target. I focused and finally got my three. And then I decided to go for a couple more challenges. At the end of the evening all I had left to do was two challenges, get five chopper hacks and also kill five mobsters with a taco truck .

So today I decided to concentrate on just playing the missions, or as they call them, the World and Light World Stories. I'm still having fun, but I'm needing to take breaks more often so I don't burn out on the game. You can start getting sloppy in playing the missions, just brute forcing them, and that misses the subtlety of the mission design. Let me explain...

Like the Deus Ex games, it's often possible to complete the same mission in completely different ways. You can go in armed to the teeth and shoot your way through, using lethal or less than lethal means. Or you can use stealth and try to sneak pass the defenses and in towards your objectives. Or, using your Quadcopter and Jumper, you can keep your precious skin and bones outside of the danger area and try to accomplish your goals that way. However, often in the same area as the mission related items there might be a money bag or paint can or research point and sometimes they require you to be physically present, or at least get closer to, say, use your Jumper, which can do pretty much all activities except for physical hacks. So it's up to you. The money bags and paint cans are purely optional, as are most of the research point pickups; some of the research items aren't just point accumulations, they unlock certain skills that can then be bought with research points. Some are fairly optional, but some are, if not mandatory, then highly desirable.

What this means when playing is that if you slam through a mission, you can be successful, but you miss IMHO the point of the game design, which is that there are several approaches and sometimes there is more fun to be had by doing recon and planning and then executing a more stylish, Thomas Crown Affair type of mission, rather than Reservoir Dogs.

"A plan is a list of things that go wrong. I like to keep my lists short. Just be ready." - Rico Rodriguez

storz wrote:I ordered a Samsung 850 EVO SSD from Amazon when it went on sale yesterday, and was pleasantly surprised when I got an email saying I have free Watch Dogs 2 key on Uplay. I just redeemed it, and will report back when it is released.

Thanks for posting this. I also just purchased a Samsung 850 EVO SSD but did not get the code fro Amazon. A few emails later and I now own the game. I still need to finish the first one, but it really grew on me, so I'm pretty excited to jump into this next. The promotion runs for quite a bit (12/31/16) so if anyone is looking for an SSD, here is the page with details.

In addition, if you buy an Nvidia video card from certain retailers (including Newegg but not including Amazon) you can also score a free copy. I got one with my 1080.

I got my SSD Sept 8...wonder if I can get a copy?..Who do I email just support?

I'm enjoying this on the PS4 and think it's made some improvements on WD 1, but I do miss the companion racing app and Trailing PvP mode, which I preferred over Hacking. I'd gamely hoped for more similarly innovative multiplayer modes.
/sadtuba
The Hacking now will tend to match you with a player in your area, so you can often pick a general hunting area. The best spot I've found is Alcatraz with its multiple story cell blocks and stairwells. It also works to start/center the Hack on the main building then move to the wall outside the back under some trees. Resist the urge to poke around with the drone and it seems nearly foolproof (I think the victims can see your hacklines).

Emailed them. made me call them. Got kindle support. After 10 min she switched me to some other spot. After 5 min he says their system is locked up but he will send all info and email to promotions. they will get to me in 48 or less. So theres where I stand.

Looking at that promotion page there is NO mention of a start date for it just the ending date and I DID buy a Samsung SSD. So maybe Ill get one. Would save me getting it someday. No big deal if not. Not hurting me to try.

I completed the game today. Sixty hours, 100% completion, 7.6 million followers and most all the actions, activities and such complete. And I'm completely burned out on the game . Still, a very good experience. Maybe when the DLC has all come out and is not so ridiculously priced I'll pick it up.

"A plan is a list of things that go wrong. I like to keep my lists short. Just be ready." - Rico Rodriguez

I've been wandering game to game lately and fired this up for the first time since purchasing it at the beginning of the year. I spent a lot of time with the first one but never beat it - though I enjoyed it a lot.

I'm just an hour in, but liking it. The pace seems more hectic than the original.

So much this. I normally like driving in these games, but the wild camera swings are going to get me killed. Tonight I'll be looking for settings to adjust - from mouse sensitivity to anything else I can find - to help improve this.

I assume the game drops you into an online pool while you play, like the first one did, so I'm back to disabling my NIC as soon as UPlay logs me in and starts the game. I currently have zero interest in randomly getting pinged or jumping into another person's game.

I had a lot of fun in the original with stalking or hiding, but it seemed that as the community thinned, the number of hardcore dicks climbed. You could try and pause the game to know if someone was in your game - if pausing failed, you knew you weren't alone. That's when people suddenly sprint to an isolated island and snipe anything that moves - or some people hole up in a dead-end alley with booby traps inside it, waiting to execute anyone who walks past.

I had a lot of fun with it, but also had a lot of annoying time too.

Until I figure out how to even play, and build a few skills at the least, I'm avoiding it.

I loved the WD online experience. I'm usually terrible at multiplay, but could hold my own in WD as it didn't rely heavily on laser reflexes. Hiding and stalking were so much fun.

I also liked how they did the hiding and stalking. It was a nice way to take a break from the normal process of gameplay and I got to see some interesting parts of the city. And it didn't happen too often as to make it annoying.

I saw something that mentioned a rumor that Watch_Dogs 3 will be set in London. If so, very cool. I'd have to say it is my favorite of the open world series.

"A plan is a list of things that go wrong. I like to keep my lists short. Just be ready." - Rico Rodriguez

So much this. I normally like driving in these games, but the wild camera swings are going to get me killed. Tonight I'll be looking for settings to adjust - from mouse sensitivity to anything else I can find - to help improve this.

Bringing the sensitivity down to 25% instead of 50% for driving, and learning where the chase cam view button was brought my game up to par again. As long as I avoid "Muscle" cars, I can drive with confidence. Really enjoyed the DeadSec Autonomous CyberDriver car mission, and tried doing a couple rides with "Danger Liv" where she has me doing jumps all over town. Couldn't get a 5-star ride, but 4 isn't bad.

Lots of people over the years boggled at me using a KB/Mouse to drive in GTA and Watch_Dogs, but it's no big deal for me. In the previous game, I'd consistently place in the top 3, sometimes winning, when doing online races. I don't think a controller would improve my driving.

I like the gadgets and improvements in this game. I'm not so sure about it being additionally violent. I don't remember getting an assault rifle in the original (though maybe it was an option?), nor did I ever have the capability to call in a "Gang Strike" against a target. Last night, after trying a mission a few times using stealth, I gave up and just pulled out my rifle. Pop pop pop. Now I can walk around the facility unchallenged. The only "penalty" was that a car with a few more tactical guards showed up and I got to loot their ammo, too. Given that the "experience" in the game is in subscribers, I'd like to think slick stealthy missions garner more followers than assault raids with a trail of dead bodies. I'm going to RP that better from now on, because I honestly felt less like an elite hacker and more like a commando.

Resist the urge to poke around with the drone and it seems nearly foolproof (I think the victims can see your hacklines).

It would completely defeat the purpose of remote hacks if they could see those lines, breaking any usefulness in the drones. I suppose the test is to see them deploy a drone and see what it looks like. I know in the original, hacked devices were undetected, and I expect RC devices would be as well.

I'm getting close to considering an online mission to put a toe in the water and see how I feel about it. My map is littered with purple indicators begging me to join other players. I'm still learning some of the tricks in the game, though, and don't know how well I'd compete. A big thing I haven't been able to figure out yet is the traffic control while fleeing from cops. I pass explosive covers on streets, and then I see a flashing "F" indicator telling me to push that to detonate it behind me, but nothing happens when I do, and I'll be damned if I'm going to swing the camera around while driving forward like a rocket so I can try and catch a manhole cover. Maybe I need to "activate" it with my middle button and then hold the activation button down, then trigger it when I see the indicator flash? I don't think I'd done that. That would make sense.

As it is, I have a hard time shaking 3+ wanted ratings without cheesing and jumping into a boat or hiding under an overpass. It won't be too long before I can finally disable helicopters, which will be a big help.

Still pushing through the storyline missions, and sort of chasing the side quests and collectibles. It's nice to have a lot more research unlocked. My "Go-To" for a lot of missions has been to have annoying guards that patrol high traffic areas arrested by the police, or if I'm facing a gang - I have no qualms with instigating a large-scale gang war to clear a path.

Oddly, I still feel very out of character when a mission breaks down and my best option for escape is to simply double-tap everyone in the head and leave. I much prefer to be unseen and unfound, relying on complete chaos as a smokescreen.

The driving elements are more fun, and I've bought myself the best (IMO) "Performance" car - the one with near 100% traction - but I still can't figure out how to trigger the "Escape" events when I'm being chased. I get a bright flashing "F" on my screen when pursuers are near an explosive or barricade object, but it doesn't seem to matter how much I tap or mash "F" during that time - nothing happens. My controls are all still set to default.

I've been temped to go online, but really don't want to until I've mastered the art of actually using the controls presented effectively to evade capture. I don't want to be that guy who drags down a team because I'm unable to play the game.